Dissident mother and daughter found dead

A SENIOR member of the Syrian opposition and her daughter have been found stabbed to death in their Istanbul flat, with their family claiming they were assassinated.

Orouba Barakat, 60, was understood to be a former member of the Syrian National Council opposition while her 22-year-old daughter Halla wrote for Orient News, an anti-assad website.

No group claimed responsibility for the killings and Turkish police said they had made no arrests. At least four Syrian journalists have been murdered inside Turkey in killings claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

The mother and daughter were found dead in their home in Uskudar, in central Istanbul, late on Thursday night. Police believe they may have been killed two or three days earlier and that their killer covered their bodies in caustic lime to prevent the remains from smelling. Unconfirmed reports said their throats had been cut.

The elder Ms Barakat was a longtime Syrian dissident and journalist who spoke out against the Assad regime. “The hand of tyranny and injustice assassinated my sister Doctor Orouba and her daughter Halla in their apartment in Istanbul,” said Orouba’s sister, Shaza.

The family had lived in both the UAE and UK before settling in Turkey, where nearly three million Syrians have fled since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011. Halla was born in the US and was an American citizen.

The women were reported to be related to three Syrian-americans who were murdered in North Carolina in 2015, allegedly by a neighbour, Craig Hicks. He has still to be tried and faces the death penalty if convicted.